Inès Mir on YouTube · Open on YouTube
Orientation · Explorer · Lesson 4 of 99 · 26 min video, then about 35 min of practice
The 2026 hiring reality for junior designers
After this you can state honestly what you are competing against, and what a portfolio has to do to get past it.
Why it matters
Face this before you invest the time. Teams are adding senior headcount faster than junior headcount, a large share of applications are filtered by automated screening before a human sees them, and portfolio reviews are short: reviewers scan, they do not read. The strategic consequence runs through this entire roadmap: depth on two well-argued case studies beats breadth on six thin ones, and your homepage has seconds to establish what kind of designer you are. Watch for what the hiring manager says they reject on; it is almost never visual polish.
How to use this resource
From someone actually running a 2026 hiring round, which is rarer than it sounds. The section on what separates the shortlist from the pile is the part to take notes on.